Your Friendly Neighborhood Music Critic

Recent News in Music: 9/13/2017

The Week in Music Politics:

As Hurricane Harvey, and now Irma, plague the Southern coastline, artists such as Beyoncé have come forward to pledge relief for the victims. Working with The Greater Houston Community Foundation, Knowles’ BeyGOOD Foundation is encouraging fans to donate through a Telethon hosted by Oprah and the Queen B herself featuring many other talented artists and celebrities. Rapper Trae the Truth. also reportedly boated residents in Houston to safety. Chance the Rapper also donated another $2.2 million to Chicago public schools to help fund arts education.

The Week in Music Beef:

Waka Flocka Flame, rapper and no-fuck’s-giver, shared his opinions on producer’s making albums in a recent livestream, stating:

“Is it me or, goddamn, when a DJ or a producer get famous, they wanna drop an album… Nigga, you’re not a rapper… you’re not an artist. Stick to your fucking profession, man. Fuck!”

For one, they are artists, and two, I don’t know what Flocka has against artists being able to rap and produce, but if we didn’t let our producers rap, we would have never had Kanye West. Someone should tell Flocka to learn about his profession before he runs his mouth.

Eric Andre, comedian and host of The Eric Andre Show, spoke out about the hip-hop community’s support of rappers under sexual assault allegations, such as XXXTentacion and Kodak Black. Tweeting last month, Eric said: “I was just looking at World Star Hip Hop on my IG and they’re always promoting XXX and Kodak Black. and I got upset… I was also mad at myself for promoting XXXTentacion’s music the other day. my friend was like, ‘that dude beats up pregnant women.'”

HIs tweets got the attention of XXXTrntacion himself, who responded with a since-deleted tweet that read: “I’m not scared to fuck your underaged sister in her throat though.” If X was trying to prove that his actions were in the past or distance himself from other rappers accused of aggravated battery,” he certainly did quite the opposite.

The Week in Music Business:

With 16 weeks at No. 1, “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee, and Justin Bieber, tied the record for most time spent leading the Billboard Hot 100 chart with Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men’s “One Sweet Day,” which lasted 16 weeks from 1995-1996. It’s where the song’s No. 1 lead comes to an end however, as Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do” enters strong. “Despacito” also claimed the title for “most time spent leading the Billboard Hot 100 as an non-English language song” (breaking the 1996 record of “Macarena” by Los Del Rio).

Gene Simmons is trying to trademark the Rock n’ Roll Devil Horns hand sign (above), something he didn’t even create himself, which belongs more to sign language and Spider-Man if anything at all. In an interview with the Windsor Star, Simmons commented:

Anyone who thinks that’s silly — the silliest thing I’ve ever done is wear more makeup and higher heels than your mommy… People said, ‘You can’t do that.’ Actually, bitch, I can. I can do anything I want to do.

yeesh.

The Week in Music Oddities:

You might’ve just missed it, but well-known prog-metal band Mastodon appeared in the Season 7 finale of Game of Thrones as white walkers. The band had been on the show before, as walkers turned during the battle at “Hardhome,” and even contributed a song to HBO’s Catch the Throne Vol. II mixtape, titled “White Walker.” Other musicians to make cameos on the show include Ed Sheeran as a Lannister soldier, and Will Champion, the drummer in Coldplay, as a musician during the “Red Wedding” scene.

While recording the new Foo Fighters record, Dave Grohl reportedly barbecued for at least forty people a night. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Grohl recalled being “in the middle of a vocal take,” and thinking “fuck, I gotta go check the meat.” He also included stories of him and Justin Timberlake, who is set to feature on the record, drinking “whiskey in the parking lot.”

In other hilarious news, Madonna, now living in Portugal, can’t get FedEx to deliver her package because they don’t believe that she’s actually Madonna. “When you’ve been arguing with customs all week that you really are Madonna and they still won’t release your package,” she wrote on Instagram. A FedEx employee, “Julie,” responded on Twitter offering to help.